Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Umm… so we're into the Final Four of this TCGpprentice thing, right? Then why were there only three articles last week? What happened to Fletcher Gates? It turns out that between nine-hour shifts at work and circling the wrong deadline on his calendar, he completely lost track of the assignment. And so we come to the easiest elimination of them all.

It's the easiest in the sense that I really have no choice on this matter, but it's still a very hard one emotionally because I think we all liked Fletcher a lot. Like many of the departed competitors, it's safe to say that we haven't heard the last from him. Jeremy, Robin, and Zaiem move on safely to the next task, which is to write an article about a “game issue,” basically something about Magic, but not specifically about decks, cards, or playing the game. These would be articles that I've been known to write, like on the suckiness of white and video replay. Some people love these articles as they highlight things about the game that we don't necessarily think about from day to day. Others hate them because they don't offer any strategy to get better at the game. Regardless, they are an important part of a well-rounded writing repertoire. Stick around this week to see what our candidates write about in terms of the game outside the game.

…

…

What do you mean that's not enough material for my article? Okay, fine. How about if I join a MTGO Lorwyn release league. Will that make you happy?

Things start off slowly, by which I mean the server is lagging. I know that's like saying there's oxygen in the air, but this is unreal lag. Like it takes the selling bot five minutes—five actual minutes!—to transfer over the sixteen tix for the tournament pack.

Sealed articles always Vex me because of the amount of space the deck construction takes up. Unfortunately, there isn't really a good solution to this problem. People like to see the entire card pool and “build it themselves,” so here you go. Build it.

The first thing I do is a rarity sort to see if I have any bombs. Not that all bombs need be rares, but this pool certainly bears that out as I have Austere Command and Chandra Nalaar. I also notice some near bombs in Merrow Reejerey and Summon the School, a combo amongst combos. With the help of Bene and Eirik, I come to a build that utilizes both bombs and has a small splash for Nath's Elite and the ridiculous Briarhorn.

Due to the lag, it takes a long time for me to get my first match, and when I do, it is all bugged out. The program keeps opening the match, then closing it, open, close, open, close. This goes on and on making for a Pokemon-style seizure-causing flashing. I have trouble navigating anywhere because the match screen keeps popping up to the front. And when I try to start a web browser, the minimized MTGO pops open every time the game loads every other second.

Eventually it stops and takes me to the sideboarding screen. I go back to the league room and see that I won game one, probably due to my opponent's inaction if he was facing the same seizure screen as me. That's the best die roll I ever lost. Having lost game one, my opponent has the choice of play or draw in game two, and again unable to do anything he times out of that game as well.

That's officially the dumbest match I've ever played, but I'm not about to turn down a free win.

The next one isn't so easy. Against SorbiusX's white-black-blue deck, I get Kithkin Greatheart equppied with Runed Stalactite to stick and crush his Wispmare (?), Oaken Brawler, Mulldrifter draw.

In game two, I get an aggro Kithkin draw with Skirmisher, Healer, Wizened Cenn, and Changeling Berserker. He slowly stabilizes with Shriekmaw and O-Ring. I Rebuild with a Giant army of Harbinger into Axegrinder facing down his Changeling Hero. I try to get him with Triclopean Sight when he blocks my Axegrinder, but he counters with Peppersmoke. When he Footbottom Feasts his Shriekmaw, I feel the game slip out of my grasp.

He gets what has to be the nuts for his deck as he curves out with Judge of Currents, Merrow Reejerey, and Summon the School. I get some loose Kithkin beats going, but there's no way I can race him gaining four life a turn and making two additional tokens. Eventually he just crushes me to bits with his army.

Maybe it's just my karmic punishment for my free win. Undeterred, I enter another duel with Shadowhearts who gets his own nuts with a Lys Alana Huntmaster and a murder of Elves. I know that “murder” is the word for a group of crows, but it seems appropriate here as he has the capability to activate a turn six Mosswort Bridge, but just runs me over with his Elves without revealing his hideaway card.

Round two goes better for me. He gets a turn one Goldmeadow Harrier, but taps out every turn, letting me sneak in damage with Loafing Oaf, Kisbaile Balloonist, then Changeling Berserker. When he taps out yet again for Vigor, I finish him off by throwing my Berserker into the sky with Loafing Oaf and loading up with pump from Inner-Flame Acolyte and Surge of Thoughtweft. I love throwing changelings with the Oaf.

Shadowhearts apparently keeps a one-land hand here with Wanderer's Twig and two Wren's Run Vanquishers. I put on my racing boots with Inner-Flame Acolyte and Kisbaile Balloonist. When he crashes in with both Vanquishers, I use my sideboarded Pollen Lullaby and win the clash with Briarhorn, which prompts him to scoop.

I open my game against LotusEater with Windbrisk Heights, hiding a Wizened Cenn. That will make for a nice little combat trick as I curve out with Firebelly Changeling, Kithkin Healer, and Balloonist. He Neck Snaps the Balloonist and blocks Healer with Ghostly Changeling, but sure enough, Wizened Cenn does his pumping thing, and the game ends next turn with a Lash Out on his newly played Goldmeadow Stalwart.

LotusEater gets a nice opener as he gets out Wren's Run Vanquisher and Knight of Meadowgrain, two of the harder to deal with early drops in the format. I build with Loafing Oaf (which I realize is Lowland Oaf, but I keep calling him this. Sorry for the confusion), Kinsbaile Skirmisher, and Inner-Flame. They all have to get in there for a suicidal attack on his Ajani Goldmane, who he did not use to crush me with the second ability. Actually, he didn't even use the first ability. Thanks for the chance, LotusEater. I don't get much more than an Axegrinder Giant after that, while he drops a Timber Protector, equipping his Meadowgrain with Runed Stalactite. How am I supposed to beat a 4/4 lifelink, first striker? Oh, and it is indestructible.

Game three is anticlimactic. I get stuck on the three lands from my opening hand he goes Godzilla-in-Tokyo on me with Imperious Perfect and Lys Alana Huntmaster. I don't mind losing games like this that much. Magic is a random game and you will have games you lose to not drawing this or that. For me, game two was a little more frustrating because he tried to give it to me with the Ajani misplay.

My next opponent, Gridbug, beats me up in the early/mid game with Battlewand Oak, even getting me with a Triclops (Triclopean Sight). I make a bad misplay that turn, as I should have played Chandra and finished off the Battlewand with two points of damage, but instead go with the Giant Harbinger into Axegrinder plan. The Battlewand keeps on beating me up. He makes a nice play of Lace with Moonglove on his Harpoon Sniper to kill my Axegrinder as deathtouch isn't just combat damage. We keep trading spells back and forth and accumulate a ridiculous amount of lands. Enough so that he can play a Wren's Run Packmaster (with no Elves to champion) just to pump out two Wolf tokens on an empty board. That's ten mana, and the game as I can't keep up with his Wolves. I mean, I have to Lash Out one and Austere Command another. Embarrassing.

Game two is one of those non-games again as I mulligan to four. The five card hand has two lands, but also Giant Harbinger and Axegrinder, which makes it more like a three card hand. Another Imperious Perfect does some smashing.

So I end the official five matches with a horrible 2-3 record, with one win being the free seizure win. I decide it's time to switch things up. I initially liked the Merfolk build, but Bene and Eirik convinced me that I didn't have enough Merfolk to make Summon the School a true bomb. Also, no Silvergill Dowser.

I contemplate having a red splash instead of green, but I don't really like the notion of splashing for a double color spell like Chandra, and Briarhorn seems just as good, if not better than, Lash Out.

League action, take two! I open my match against UghGrand with a mulligan, and stall on three lands for two turns (again all in my original six) with a Neck Snap and Briarhorn in my hand. To add insult to injury, I draw my fourth land on my land turn and it is the cipt Windbrisk Heights. I don't know if playing the Snap and Briar could have gotten me out of my hole had I been able to play them, but it would have interesting to find out.

In game two, I try to throw the game away, running my Regis (Merrow Reejerey) into a badly telegraphed Briarhorn (it could be Neck Snap too, I suppose, as he is blue-green-white). I have a Neck Snap under my Windbrisk Heights, but no additional white mana source to activate it. Fortunately, my merrow have done enough early damage to allow the islandwalking Harbinger to finish things. Game three is more of the same, fast merrow beats with Regis tapping down potential blockers.

Emunst is my next victim, err… opponent. He brings a lethal BWU deck filled to brim with flyers, or so it seems. Marsh Flitter, Kisbaile Balloonist, and Mulldrifter make my ground-based army look bad, and his Goldmeadow Harrier stops my Nath's Elite. I'm on the defensive the whole game, trading my Balloonist for his, them using Briarhorn on my Mulldrifter to kill his Flitter. Now it's just his Mulldrifter, but it is equipped with Runed Stalactite and able to regenerate from his Black Poplar Shaman.

The game is so complicated that I need to reset with a new paragraph. I think that Austere Command is my only out. Of course, it isn't because Black Poplar can regenerate. Instead of my Command, I draw Merrow Harbinger with Summon the School already in hand. That changes things. I play the Harbinger getting Reej and Summon up a School. On his turn, Emunst puts me to the test by tapping a Merfolk with Harrier. This is one of only four Merfolk I have in play (the fourth being Paperfin Rascal) and the move forces me to tap them all to regrow the School. This leaves me completely open and a leftover Goblin token, Skeletal Changeling, and the Poplar join Mulldrifter to attack me down to two. Basically, I'm dead on the board. I only have one flying blocker for the Mulldrifter and he can Harrier it down.

Undeterred, I play Reej and attack for 11 with Nath's Elite, Paperfin, and Harbinger. It's the first damage I've dealt to him all game. Not only does this put him within striking distance next turn, but the three attackers also activate Windbrisk Heights, which has been sitting there since turn one. I use it and play… Sentinels of Glen Elendra, aka another flying blocker. I even have enough mana to play School and untap my Paperfin Rascal to further solidify my goal-line stand. It works and Emunst scoops. Whew.

Game three is another early Reej blowout. He is forced to Crib Swap my islandwalking Deeptread Merrow, which still leaves me with a 2/2 Merfolk token. Wellgabber Apothecary, a highly underrated card, allows my army to keep attacking without concern. It's all over when Sentinels of Glen Elendra picks up a Stalactite and the Reejerey bonus.

Dyedvob is my next opponent. I keep a five land, Stalactite, Moonglove Extract hand. I'm not sure why. It works out well enough I suppose. My first action play is a Kisbaile Balloonist. The following turn I blow away a Cloudcrown Oak with Briarhorn on my Balloonist. Fearing my potential five power worth of attackers, he O-Rings my Balloonist, but I make it five anyway with a quick equip of Stalactite to Briarhorn and a Merrow Reejerey. I play Aquitect's Will, draw Merrow Harbinger off it, and complete the chain with Summon the School. Yeah, insane. Despite my friends' concern of “not enough Merfolk,” I seem to be getting there an awful lot. Merrow Harbinger is the glue as getting either Reejerey or Summon to complete the combo works out nicely.

I keep another slow hand in game two and he punishes me with Wren's Run Packmaster. I've got to stop keeping these bad hands that can't go anywhere. In game three, he makes a questionable play. I've got Windbrisk Heights in play and he chooses not to Moonglove Extract one of my three creatures before I can attack. So he blocks a 3/3 Paperfin with Masked Admirers and I make him pay my activating Heights and dropping Briarhorn.

Despite that, he stabilizes with Thorntooth Witch and the recurring Admirers, which helps him build a small army of Harpoon Sniper, Jagged-Scar Archers, Oaken Brawler, and Goldmeadow Harrier. I slow roll the Austere Command, which prompts his “UNFNBELIEVABLE. how many fkn times can i play against that godam card.”

After the reset, Kithkin Healer and Wellgabber Apothecary dominate the combat phase. Really. He shows Final Revels and O-Ring off of successive clashes, so I again slow roll my Merrow Reejerey until the coast is clear. He has to O-Ring a Runed Stalactite and Reejerey wearing a Triclopean Sight trumps his Revels.

Topgun53 loses game one quickly when I trump him on successive turns with Briarhorn and Triclops. Game two starts better for him; Harrier, Galepowder Mage and Veteran of the Depths Threaten to own me, so again it's time for Austere Command to save my butt. He obliges my plan and drops an extra Skeletal Changeling for me to eat (I attack with my Woodland Changeling first to make him tap out to regenerate).

He claims he got the read and held back. I get a little nervous about this as he taps some lands to play…

Plover Knights? I laugh inside, then I laugh outside when I get him with Sentinels of Glen Elendra plus Briarhorn. After eliminating his Plover, the game is elementary.

I think I am going to own The Goblin King when I mulligan into a hand that gives me Deeptread Merrow, Paperfin Rascal, and Summon the School. But he's got a nice evasive draw of Squeaking Pie Sneak, Avian Changeling and Thieving Sprite. I get him down to six and start rejoicing. He attacks back with his entire unblockable team and takes me down to five. Uh oh. Yep. He has Fodder Launch.

He has a nice tech play in game two. After I Merrow Harbinger a Reejerey to the top of my library, he plays Drowner of Secrets and mills it away. I can't Recover from that. Fodder Launch is key for him again, as is a Weed Strangle that gains him some much needed life.

I end up going 4-1 on the Rebound with Merfolk. I guess I should have stuck with my gut and not let my friends convince me. Not that it's their fault. I liked the red build as well. I mean, c'mon, Chandra. But in retrospect, it's not my style of deck. Reejerey tricks are much more up my alley. Not only can you tap down their creatures. I have also tapped lands to play around Neck Snap, untapped creatures to use as blockers, and untapped lands to generate extra mana for more plays. I love versatility and Merrow Reejerey is my new favorite Swiss Army Knife.